His first record was a brief contribution on the album A-Austr: Musics from Holyground, with Brian Calvert, Chris Coombs, Ted Hepworth, Mike Levon and Brian Wilson. Levon recorded and produced the album which appeared on Levon's own Holyground Records label in 1970. After that, Nelson appeared in a much more substantial role with Lightyears Away on Astral Navigations released in 1971. On one track, "Yesterday", written by Coombs, Levon recorded Nelson's lead guitars in an acid rock style, supporting Coombs' stylophone riff. This track also gave Nelson his first airplay by John Peel[4] on his national BBC Radio 1 programme in the United Kingdom. Nelson's Holyground recordings were released in February 2001 as Electrotype.

Nelson's debut solo albumNorthern Dream drew further attention from Peel which eventually led to Nelson's band Be-Bop Deluxe signing to EMI and releasing Axe Victim In 1976 Be-Bop Deluxe released the album 'Sunburst Finish'.

After the breakup of Be-Bop Deluxe, Nelson created Red Noise (releasing the Sound - On - Sound album), but eventually settled into a career as a solo musician, recording albums in the early electropop vein such as Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam and The Love That Whirls. Many of these albums were released with bonus tracks, including records featuring experimental, ambientinstrumentals. For a period between the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nelson self-produced on his Cocteau label a plethora of releases, consisting of solo synthesizer and keyboard instrumental pieces.[4] Many were later released on the short-lived Enigma label.

1980s

In mid 1980 Nelson released the single "Do You Dream In Colour?", which after airplay on BBC Radio 1 reached #52 in the UK Singles Chart.[5]

He was hired by British synthpop artist Gary Numan to produce his 1983 album Warriors, with Numan claiming that Bill Nelson was his "favourite guitar player, bar none." However, the two musicians failed to maintain a working relationship, and ultimately Nelson chose not to be credited for his production role on the album. Nelson also contributed towards several tracks on David Sylvian's Gone to Earth (1986).

Nelson had bad luck with major record labels in the 1980s. A deal with CBS Records went sour, leaving one album, Getting the Holy Ghost Across (U.S. title: On a Blue Wing). Nelson and his manager Mark Rye had formed the Cocteau Records label in 1981, and for many years this label handled the majority of Nelson's output, which often included multiple albums per year. Among the more ambitious Cocteau releases were the four-record boxed set of experimental electronic music, Trial by Intimacy (The Book of Splendours), and the later ambient collection, Chance Encounters in the Garden of Lights, which contained music informed by Nelson's Gnostic beliefs. In the late 1980s, Nelson signed to Enigma Records, who went out of business, although they had just re-released his entire Cocteau catalogue.

As the 1980s ended, Nelson suffered a series of personal setbacks, including a divorce, tax problems, and an acrimonious dispute with his manager over his back catalogue rights. In the case of one album, the unreleased Simplex, Nelson discovered his manager had been selling copies via mail order without Nelson's authorisation or knowledge; Nelson claims he never received any royalties from these sales.[6] Esoteric Recordings released Simplex on CD in the UK on July 2012.

1990s

In the 1990s, he released the 4 CD box setDemonstrations of Affection and worked on some guitar-based instrumental projects such as the albums Crimsworth and Practically Wired, or How I Became... Guitarboy! Further multiple disc offerings included My Secret Studio and Noise Candy.

By 1996, Nelson's troubles with his former manager were resolved in a lawsuit which enabled Nelson to recover much of his back catalogue.[citation needed] A fully authorised version of the Simplex album was released in 2001.

In the late 1990s, Nelson created the Populuxe label, with a distribution arrangement with Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile, but his relationship with them had stagnated and Nelson's last release on that label was Atom Shop in 1998. Subsequent releases have been on other imprints such as Toneswoon and Voiceprint as well as direct mail-order releases.

2000s

By 2006, Universal Music (UK) had re-issued three Mercury albums: Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam, The Love that Whirls and Chimera had all been remastered and released with bonus tracks. The lone CBS album Getting the Holy Ghost Across / On a Blue Wing had also been re-issued with all the original tracks and extras on Nelson's Sonoluxe imprint.

At his annual 'Nelsonica' event in West Yorkshire, Nelson stages rare public performances. He has recently released the first part of an autobiography.